Chavez blasts Columbus Day

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez urged Latin Americans on Saturday not to celebrate Columbus Day, saying the 1492 discovery of the Americas triggered a 150-year "genocide" of native Indians by foreign conquerors who behaved "worse than Hitler."

"Christopher Columbus was the spearhead of the biggest invasion and genocide ever seen in the history of humanity," the populist president told a meeting in Caracas of representatives of Indian peoples from across the continent.

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This is awesome. Everything Chavez said was right. I completely agree with him.

story.news.yahoo.com.../nm/20031011/wl_nm/venezuela_columbus_dc

some very interesting times we are living in...

Originally posted by Illmatic67
CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez urged Latin Americans on Saturday not to celebrate Columbus Day, saying the 1492 discovery of the Americas triggered a 150-year "genocide" of native Indians by foreign conquerors who behaved "worse than Hitler."

"Christopher Columbus was the spearhead of the biggest invasion and genocide ever seen in the history of humanity," the populist president told a meeting in Caracas of representatives of Indian peoples from across the continent.

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This is awesome. Everything Chavez said was right. I completely agree with him.

story.news.yahoo.com.../nm/20031011/wl_nm/venezuela_columbus_dc

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Excellent Blast!!

I don't honor Columbus day either. I am native American and do not celebrate the annihilation of my people. I dont think its a good day to have a party
its like having a celebration for 911.
It's not appropriate. But what do I know. Im just a savage.


www.transformcolumbusday.org...



Mark

[Edited on 12-10-2003 by MarkosOrrealus]

I don't blame the Native-American people for not supporting this or any other American Holiday. Other than those Cultures that have been Totally wiped clean from this planet Native-American's have one of the most horrible historical accounts ever involving Europe's Involvement in the New World all through the entire Establishment of America as we know it. Columbus in fact was just a tiny speck of the whole story really.

Seems like the Census Population Percentages show an unbalance too.

Year 2000 Census
Total Population: 281,421,906
White
69.1%
Black
12.3%
American Indian, Eskimo, Aleut
0.9%
Asian and Pacific Islander
3.6%
Hispanic origin (of any race)
12.5%

I'm not sure how much death was caused directly by european hands, but its been recorded that the illnesses that were brought over like small pox proved very fatal to this country's inhabitants who had no trace of immunity to it.

Chavez is notorious for using people's emotions to consolidate his own power... For him, the angry speech delivered to the masses is what the law and debate are for serious statesmen. Though he uses Hitler as an image of evil... He uses the same tactics Hitler did.

As for Columbus... he was a sailor and explorer... a discoverer whose voyage helped to create the modern age. One can wonder if the high minded concepts of morality we have now would even have developed if Columbus' discovery had not helped to trigger the renaissance, enlightenment, and modern world. In short, the world sans Columbus (and people like him) is essentially disconnected and uninformed. And, for the sake of historical accuracy, the battles that gained Spain its control of the new world were all fought before 'European' diseases (many actually came to Europe via the mongols centuries before) had set in.


Just food for thought... we can bash Columbus now, but would we have the cultural/intellectual superstructure which created the moral standards we use to bash Columbus had he not discovered the new world and set in motion the second blossoming of western civilization?

Originally posted by onlyinmydreams






Just food for thought... we can bash Columbus now, but would we have the cultural/intellectual superstructure which created the moral standards we use to bash Columbus had he not discovered the new world and set in motion the second blossoming of western civilization?

Whos to say OIMD? In the end we cant change the past we can learn from it and make better the future of our own respective cultures. We can always look at life in other ways to make it easier to accept what happened in the past. But it doesnt change what happened.
I hear it all the time that the military gives us what we have today and all the *freedom* and blah blah blah and you should support our troops.
Thanks to the military we will never know what it would have been like now if they didnt do what they did back then to the indigenous people of the Americas.

Originally posted by heelstone
I'm not sure how much death was caused directly by european hands, but its been recorded that the illnesses that were brought over like small pox proved very fatal to this country's inhabitants who had no trace of immunity to it.

The Europeans gave the Natives blankets infested with Smallpox as a token of their appreciation.

Thanksgiving is another holiday that should be bashed.

The Indians saved the Pilgrims and in return the Pilgrims killed them. That is Thanksgiving.

Get the time frame right, 67. And also remember, they weren't thanking the natives, but were thanking God. Did you forget that part, or have they already edited that out of the school books with the revisionism?

Imagine what would have been had the U.S. not been around in the 1940's. Eventually, the Native Americans would have had to learn German, which is a much more difficult language to pick up, I think.

A People's History of the United States, by Howard Zinn.
Proudly taught and read in California.......
A good alternative would be to read:
Rewriting of America's History by Millard

The samething would have occurred no matter who had colonized the New World.
Very sad...


regards
seekerof

This is the first I've ever heard such an issue raised about Columbus..Yes, there are things I agree with that he did and things I don't, but I think the comparision to Hitler is a bit overboard.

Just remember, incase it's not in your history books..which I can bet it's not. There are savages and there are Indians/Native Americans and there are savages and there are Americans..neither are completely perfect in how they went about doing things in the past..

And I AM Native American..and still respect Columbus and I know other NA who feel the same..
Mags

Thomas, I don't know where you've been but they have been putting lies into history books forever now.

The Pilgrims weren't thanking God, they were thanking the Natives. Sure, just add the word God a couple times and that will be what was believed to be.

Germans, English, French, doesn't matter to me who killed off the Natives. They all fit into the white man European category to me.

This always comes up every year....

There isn't a single "great" person celebrated, that hasn't made mistakes...and yes, Columbus made some. But, to blame the genocide of indians that followed, and colonization, etc. is a bit much to put on his shoulders...

We celebrate the spirit of discovery...not the man (or at least, that's what I celebrate with the day)...

Funny I saw the building Columbus's tomb resides in a few days ago in Santo Domingo.

I agree, that we shouldn't put everything on his shoulders. He discovered the land. Other's came and began the genocide. Hernan Cortez is a fine example. I saw the house he lived in also last friday, but I wouldn't even think of going in. yuck.

Regardless of responsibility, atrocious acts of mankind led to the destruction of these indigenous people. Eh, that statement seems all too familiar. I have read of estimations between 5 million-20 million Natives wiped off their land. Some researchers believe estimates of 40 million to 150 million are too low. "The greatest country in the history of man was here long before the colonies began."--Corporate Avenger

He is just mad that his people were on the short end of the stick. Someone was going find the "New World" inventually, and his name would of been smeared.

Actually, its Columbus' second trip that is at issue. He first came as an explorer but he returned to conquer. His second trip was a genocidal mission--he brought more men and guns. He forced natives to bring him x-amount of gold or be killed--a sort of tax system. When he realized there was little gold he tried to enslave them. Natives committed suicide rather than be forced into this slavery...that is why Haiti is a dark island peopled with the decendants of African slaves because the Spainsh led by Columbus killed all the natives and the land had to be repopulated for labor purposes.

We shouldn't be asked to celebrate genocide no matter the end result.

I really never got the Italian connection: He perpetrated being Spanish ( Cristabol Colon, I believe) and the funds/ships/crew were all Spaniards.

Go figure.

Originally posted by mOjOm
Hispanic origin (of any race)
12.5%

lol, I find that VERY hard to believe!